Legal anti-gay discrimination

Various so-called “pro-family” groups have expressed their pleasure and support for government discrimination against gays, as mandated by the dishonestly-named “Defense of Marriage Act of 1996.

Pro-family groups were encouraged this week by the announcement that the U.S. Census Bureau will not include same-sex “marriages” in its upcoming 2010 census report.

“The U.S. Census Bureau procedures used to count and tabulate relationship data are guided by and comply with legal requirements of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which requires all federal agencies to recognize only opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of administering federal programs,” explained Census Bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner in a statement.

In other words, critics of the DMA have been right all along: it does nothing to defend marriages, and merely uses the power of government to exclude gays from receiving equal access to government programs and other benefits.

What’s more, provisions of the DMA also require the Census Bureau to deliberately tamper with the data, in order to obscure the true extent of gay relationships in the US.

According to Census Bureau officials, any respondents who mark off persons of the same gender as “husband” or “wife” on the new census form will be automatically classified as an “unmarried partner.”

Currently, the Census Bureau considers as a family “two or more people related by birth, adoption or marriage.”

And how do Christian groups feel about such deliberate distortions of the truth?

Jennifer Kerns, a communications director for ProtectMarriage.com, which is behind the ballot initiative to restore traditional marriage in California, was thrilled to see a federal institution backing the sanctity of marriage.

Denying people the right to marry, and imposing substantial legal and financial penalties if they do marry—that’s kind of an odd definition of “the sanctity of marriage,” isn’t it Jennifer? But no, what Jennifer really means is that she’s thrilled that the government is protecting the sanctity of the sectarian Christian monopoly on marriage. Oh, sure, we have “freedom” of religion in this country. Thanks to the Christian majority, however, you can be punished for exercising that freedom by practicing “wrong” beliefs about what marriage is.

2 Responses to “Legal anti-gay discrimination”

“Jennifer Kerns, a communications director for ProtectMarriage.com, which is behind the ballot initiative to restore traditional marriage in California”

See, I was unaware that the California Supreme Court decision banned “traditional marriage” (whatever that is). If they said ONLY gays can get married then I agree that restoration of “traditional marriage” is necessary. I say keep up the good work Jennifer Kerns. Bring back the right of heterosexuals to marry! And get divorced. And live in tepees. And have no children. And put their old parents in homes. And live where their employers move their businesses. You know all that traditional stuff from the last 30 years or so.